Word from Australia is that Nokia is shutting down the Brisbane office that has worked on the open-source graphical interface framework Qt in preparation to sell off the framework.

Qt was originally developed by Trolltech, a Norwegian company. Nokia bought the firm in 2008 and I'm not sure what either side got out of the deal. A Nokia senior software engineer told ZDNet Australia that he and 50 other employees have received notices of termination and Nokia plans to close the office.

On a Qt development mailing list, that same engineer wrote that teams working on a variety of Qt modules as well as the computer integration/quality assurance teams have all been shut down. "So…anyone hiring?" he asks.

Nokia has not made a public comment yet. But I will.

First, I think this is long overdue and have argued this for quite some time. I see no synergy between the two. Trolltech belonged in the hands of a cross-platform developer company, not a platform owner. To be honest, I thought Microsoft would make a good owner, but you could also argue Embarcadero Technologies. And Nokia needs the money. It won't get much from Trolltech, but it's something.

Secondly, what the hell is Nokia CEO Stephen Elop thinking? He’s firing all of the engineers and QA people, THEN trying to sell off the company? No one in their right mind is going to buy a DVD-ROM full of code without staff who actually know what's what and where. That's worthless.

Source code is only half the value, and perhaps even less than that. The team that built it, integrated it with other platforms, tested it, that knows it cold, is the real asset.

And you're scattering them to the wind? No wonder people are taking bets over who will make a bigger crater, Nokia or RIM.

Anyone want to buy a Lumia 900? It’s slightly used.

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